Local Access to Microdata for Human and Business Research is on the Horizon!

On July 26, 2016, the Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Economic Development and the PICARD center co-hosted a meet and greet event where representatives from the Federal Statistical Research Data Center (FSRDC) presented information about how to gain access to restricted microdata generated by entities such as the National Center for Health Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Center for Economic Studies. The FSRDC has 24 regional centers with 6 more to open soon that allow approved researchers to avoid expensive travel to gain access to the data for approved research projects. Our goal is to locate a regional FSRDC in Lafayette, so you can have easy access to answer research questions and help develop policy.
Karen Burstein and a team of researchers from across the University are spearheading the application process to bring an FSRDC to the PICARD center.  If you have research questions that are not adequately addressed by the aggregate data released by government agencies, you need to contact Steven Dick or Karen Burstein about adding your proposed use of this restricted data to our application.  For this stage of the process, they only need a paragraph (250 words) describing the research question(s) to be addressed and the data that is needed.  The description or mini proposal should be submitted to Steven Dick by September 9th via the online submission form. If we can show there is a strong need and desire to have access to this data in our area, we will be a competitive contender to have an RDC located here.  You can find more information at the PICARD website on the Gulf State Research Data Center.